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The final phase of demolition at Detroit's old Brewster-Douglass housing project is in full swing on Thursday, March 13, 2014. / Romain Blanquart/Detroit Free Press

Demolition vs. deconstruction

If “demolition” refers to bulldozing a house and burying the debris in a landfill, “deconstruction” refers to the practice of carefully salvaging as much material as possible with a goal of recycling wood, brick and other materials. Recycling creates additional jobs and is easier on the environment. For more information on deconstructing Detroit’s blighted buildings, visit http://reclaimingdetroit.org.

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The bricks, wood and other valuable building materials are there for everyone to see on many of Detroit’s 80,000 blighted houses.

But a major unknown as the city gears up to raze all of those structures in just six years is how effectively the city and its partners can salvage and recycle the material.

Detroit already enjoys a small “deconstruction industry” in which wood and other material are removed from houses being demolished and then sold or reused. The nonprofit Reclaim Detroit operation turns some salvaged wood into kitchen cutting boards and other for-sale objects. Artists are using reclaimed wood for tables, chairs, bookcases and other furniture.

Nobody knows exactly how much value can be wrung from derelict homes, but Jacob Corvidae, executive director of the nonprofit EcoWorks agency in Detroit, thinks it’s significant.

“It is easily $15 million and more likely in the range of $50 (million) to $100 million that we’re looking at either capturing or throwing away,” he said. “What we’re looking at now is a hybrid model where we salvage some material and demo the rest.”

Erin Kelly, a project manager for the Detroit Future City implementation office and an expert on deconstruction, said the economic benefits go beyond the value of salvaged wood.

“We know that the net benefits of including deconstruction are tremendous in terms of job creation” and other social goals, she said.

Corvidae and other enthusiasts for deconstruction are working with the city’s land bank now to figure out where they can fit into the process. “We’re trying to come up something that does not complicate the process any more,” he said.

Careful deconstruction could also help deal with another potential problem of large-scale razing of structures: the release of lead-laced dust and other potential hazards into the air.

“Deconstruction is one of the safest ways to take down a house,” Corvidae said. “We don’t want to create a new public hazard 20 years from now by lead poisoning the city now.”